Euron's Eyes (Spoilers Extended)
I made a somewhat stupid post the other day regarding Witches and Guys with One Eye
It got me thinking about Euron and his eyes/patches.
In this post, Id like to discuss Euron's eyes, and what happened with his "blood/black eye"
#Smiling Eye
A blue eye as bright as the summer sea aka his "Smiling Eye"
He looks unchanged, Victarion thought. He looks the same as he did the day he laughed at me and left. Euron was the most comely of Lord Quellon's sons, and three years of exile had not changed that. His hair was still black as a midnight sea, with never a whitecap to be seen, and his face was still smooth and pale beneath his neat dark beard. A black leather patch covered Euron's left eye, but his right was blue as a summer sky.
His smiling eye, thought Victarion. "Crow's Eye," he said. -AFFC, The Iron Captain
His smiling eye is described on numerous other occasions:
It glitters
"We shall have no king but from the kingsmoot." The Damphair stood. "No godless man—"
"—may sit the Seastone Chair, aye." Euron glanced about the tent. "As it happens I have oft sat upon the Seastone Chair of late. It raises no objections." His smiling eye was glittering. "Who knows more of gods than I? Horse gods and fire gods, gods made of gold with gemstone eyes, gods carved of cedar wood, gods chiseled into mountains, gods of empty air . . . I know them all. I have seen their peoples garland them with flowers, and shed the blood of goats and bulls and children in their names. And I have heard the prayers, in half a hundred tongues. Cure my withered leg, make the maiden love me, grant me a healthy son. Save me, succor me, make me wealthy . . . protect me! Protect me from mine enemies, protect me from the darkness, protect me from the crabs inside my belly, from the horselords, from the slavers, from the sellswords at my door. Protect me from the Silence." He laughed. "Godless? Why, Aeron, I am the godliest man ever to raise sail! You serve one god, Damphair, but I have served ten thousand. From Ib to Asshai, when men see my sails, they pray." -AFFC, The Iron Captain
Victarion describes how it seems to reflect Euron's moods
When he was gone, the Crow's Eye turned his smiling eye upon Victarion. "Lord Captain, have you no greeting for a brother long away? Nor you, Asha? How fares your lady mother?"
"Poorly," Asha said. "Some man made her a widow."
"Do you accuse me?" Euron asked mildly.
"Should I?" The sharpness in Asha's voice made Victarion frown. It was dangerous to speak so to the Crow's Eye, even when his smiling eye was shining with amusement.
"Do I command the winds?" the Crow's Eye asked his pets. -AFFC, The Iron Captain
Uses it to trick/seduce others
Aye, he thought, a great victory for the Crow's Eye and his wizards. The other captains would shout his brother's name anew when the tidings reached Oakenshield. Euron had seduced them with his glib tongue and smiling eye and bound them to his cause with the plunder of half a hundred distant lands; gold and silver, ornate armor, curved swords with gilded pommels, daggers of Valyrian steel, striped tiger pelts and the skins of spotted cats, jade manticores and ancient Valyrian sphinxes, chests of nutmeg, cloves, and saffron, ivory tusks and the horns of unicorns, green and orange and yellow feathers from the Summer Sea, bolts of fine silk and shimmering samite . . . and yet all that was little and less, compared to this. Now he has given them conquest, and they are his for good and all, the captain thought. The taste was bitter on his tongue. This was my victory, not his. Where was he? Back on Oakenshield, lazing in a castle. He stole my wife and he stole my throne, and now he steals my glory. -AFFC, The Reaver
Glimmers again (with firelight):
"There is the window. Leap." Victarion had no patience for this. His wounded hand was troubling him. "What do you want?"
"The world." Firelight glimmered in Euron's eye. His smiling eye. "Will you take a cup of Lord Hewett's wine? There's no wine half so sweet as wine taken from a beaten foe." -AFFC, The Reaver
and:
"The choice is yours, brother. Live a thrall or die a king. Do you dare to fly? Unless you take the leap, you'll never know."
Euron's smiling eye was bright with mockery. "Or do I ask too much of you? It is a fearsome thing to sail beyond Valyria." -AFFC, The Reaver
More reinforcing how he uses the smiling eye
"Don't be a fool. Euron shows the world his smiling eye tonight, but come the morrow … Asha, you are Balon's daughter, and your claim is stronger than his own. So long as you draw breath you remain a danger to him. If you stay, you will be killed or wed to the Red Oarsman. I don't know which would be worse. Go. You will not have another chance." -The Wayward Bride
#Blood Eye
Theon's description of Euron's "blood eye"
Under it he wore a stained white leather eye patch that reminded Theon of his uncle Euron. He'd wanted to rip it off Umber's face, to make certain that underneath was only an empty socket, not a black eye shining with malice. Instead he had whimpered through his broken teeth and said, "I am — -TWOW, Theon I
While Theon hasn't been on the II since Greyjoy's Rebellion in 289 (as far as we know) meaning he hasn't seen Euron in 10 years, he describes Euron's "blood eye" as black and shining with malice. There are numerous examples of blood being described as black in the series as well.
and:
He looks unchanged, Victarion thought. He looks the same as he did the day he laughed at me and left. Euron was the most comely of Lord Quellon's sons, and three years of exile had not changed that. His hair was still black as a midnight sea, with never a whitecap to be seen, and his face was still smooth and pale beneath his neat dark beard. A black leather patch covered Euron's left eye, but his right was blue as a summer sky. -The Iron Captain
and:
Asha's champions stepped aside, and Victarion's as well. The priest took a step backward and put one hand upon the cold rough stone of Nagga's ribs. The Crow's Eye stopped atop the steps, at the doors of the Grey King's Hall, and turned his smiling eye upon the captains and the kings, but Aeron could feel his other eye as well, the one that he kept hidden.
"IRONMEN," said Euron Greyjoy, "you have heard my horn. Now hear my words. I am Balon's brother, Quellon's eldest living son. Lord Vickon's blood is in my veins, and the blood of the Old Kraken. Yet I have sailed farther than any of them. Only one living kraken has never known defeat. Only one has never bent his knee. Only one has sailed to Asshai by the Shadow, and seen wonders and terrors beyond imagining . . ." -AFFC, The Drowned Man
Victarion's face darkened. "When the kingsmoot speaks, we shall see who wears the driftwood crown." "On that we can agree." Euron lifted two fingers to the patch that covered his left eye, and took his leave. The others followed at his heels like mongrel dogs. Silence lingered behind them, till Little Lenwood Tawney took up his fiddle. The wine and ale began to flow again, but several guests had lost their thirst. Eldred Codd slipped out, cradling his bloody hand. Then Will Humble, Hotho Harlaw, a goodly lot of Goodbrothers. -AFFC, The Iron Captain
The Crow's Eye had taken Lord Hewett's bedchamber along with his bastard daughter. When he entered, the girl was sprawled naked on the bed, snoring softly. Euron stood by the window, drinking from a silver cup. He wore the sable cloak he took from Blacktyde, his red leather eye patch, and nothing else. "When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly," he announced. "When I woke, I couldn't . . . or so the maester said. But what if he lied? -AFFC, The Reaver
A big question is what happened to Euron's eye to make it like that? It doesn't seem like an injury from something like this:
Bran looked at the crow on his shoulder, and the crow looked back. It had three eyes, and the third eye was full of a terrible knowledge. Bran looked down. There was nothing below him now but snow and cold and death, a frozen wasteland where jagged blue-white spires of ice waited to embrace him. They flew up at him like spears. He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points. He was desperately afraid. -AGOT, Bran III
But at the same time the description doesn't seem Heterochromia (Euron = Shiera Seastar confirmed). I think that from these quotes we can assume that all the other Greyjoys know about Euron's "smiling" eye and how different it is than his "blood eye" and while Aeron's fear of him is understood (rusty hinge), Victarion/Asha have also seen him and his actions (banished from II about 2 years before the series), but Theon hasn't seen Euron in 10 years and is terrified of his "blood eye".
I've seen it theorized that Euron's "smiling eye" is some kind of glamour/hypnosis which bends people to his will (especially the poor and unintelligent mongrels, etc.). I don't believe it but I think Euron is more of a master manipulator. Feel free to share your thoughts on his smiling eye/blood eye/what happened to it/etc.
TLDR: Some quotes/thoughts wrt Euron's eyes
Posted Apr 11, 2020, 4:32 PM UTC